The Hodaka Club Forum

Hi Gang, I ran across a couple of old Kodachrome slides from the past that I thought I'd share with you. The first one is me and my first motorcycle, a Jawa 350 2-stroke twin. It was taken November 1964, back when you went on Sunday rides without a helmet--Scary! The second is one of me on a early Hodaka April 1970. It appears I have gotten the message and purchased a new Bell 500 TX. Anyway, just for fun!

Maxie

It looks like front wheel altitude control improved a bit too!

Ed

Still not a lot of protection. A current motocross rider saw a picture of me in my meager 1970 racing gear recently and said "You guys were crazy back then."

And we were...


And we still are, crazy after all these years. (Paul Simon reference, sorry. These things just bubble up.)

Actually that Jawa was a cool bike. Check out those straight open exhausts. I bet it would have really flown with some bad pipes!

Max

PS---now you have me digging through the ancient slide file. Here's my second bike, a BSA 350, fast and fun but those were the days of paper air filters and DNFs. (June 1963) That's NOT my Falcon!

And AZ, Paul Simon also did the song "Don't take my Kodachrome away" which was the film that recorded these pictures--More historic trivia.--

Maxie

OK, a little slow on the Forum. I went through the slide file again and found this one from 1972. It's an Ace 100 set up for trials of the day. Local trials were not too serious, we didn't even wear a helmet. Things to note--This belonged to a friend and beloved pipe maker for our shop. We only had one trial bike so three of us rode the same bike at the event. Check out the baby Cerianis, lengthened header pipe, Yamaha tank and cool fender and lighting. Also check out Max's cool sideburns and cookie duster of the day. Everyone wore the cool Bell hat for local trials.

My report for the day!

Maxie

Oops, I forgot to mention the Torsten Hallman boots that I wore in last years ISDTRR to prove that I was indeed "Vintage."

Great picture Maxie. Quick question, do you remember what type of front wheel you had on that bike? It looks somewhat like a Bultaco wheel.

Hmmm, I didn't notice that. There's no telling, the guy not only built our pipes but laced our wheels. It was something he dug up--No clue! I do remember it was a fun bike and went real slow.

Max

Now, after blowing the picture up to look at the hub, I see that the forks are not Cerianis. I could write an entire story on the guy who built this bike. His name was Sonny Macmillan and we called him Sonny Mac. I've lost track of the guy. Anyway, it's a hybrid of some sorts. I'm starting to think it's a Yamaha front end.

Max

PS--Now I see Webco boots on the forks that were for 28mm Cerianis. Another clue.

I had a pair of Torsten Hallman MX gloves like the ones in the photo too. The black lines on the gloves were strips of extruded foam rubber which were stitched to the backs of the gloves. Innovative protection for your knuckles back in the day!

Ed

Ah, here's a side view taken the same day in 1972. I had forgotten how neat that little bike was. The pictured rider is Tom Tredway, aka, " Tommy tennis shoe" a famous Kansas rider of the day. Tom and I were teammates out of Good's Cycle Shop. Tom was fast, funny and modest. We had some good times together. I've also lost track of him.

Maxie